Guest Faculty

Ian Conley is a student at Purdue University studying Visual Design Engineering. He currently performs and competes across midwest America as the junior executive director for Dance 2XS Purdue. Ian began his training at the age of 9 at Monarch Studios in London, England. Shortly after moving to the Chicagoland area, Ian began training at Xtreme Dance Force at the age of 11 where he competed in hip hop. While at Xtreme, Ian trained under Sam Renzetti, Samantha Kotrba, Robert Lewis, Vic Ocasio, JC Renzetti, and Devon Perri. He also had the opportunity to learn from and work with top choreographers across the country such as Tricia Miranda, Kaycee Rice, Sean Lew, Tobias Ellehammer, Matt Steffanina, Josh Killacky, and many more. Ian competed on America’s Got Talent Season 15, performed with Chesca in the 2019 CURES Research for Cancer Gala, performed in the music video for “Workin” by Josh Killacky, and competed in World of Dance Chicago 2019, 2021, and 2022. He began teaching weekly recreational hip hop classes at Xtreme at the age of 16 and also began choreographing competitive hip hop routines at Xtreme and local studios in the Chicagoland area. Since he began teaching, Ian has had the opportunity to guest teach across the country for different studios and competitions where his choreography has won numerous awards and first places at regional and national competitions. Ian is super excited to get started working with the 765 dancers!

Christina Davenport is Evolve Dance Force's lead instructor and choreographer in the genres of Musical Theatre, Lyrical, Contemporary and Jazz. Davenport grew up training and performing throughout the US and established her reputation as a prestigious choreographer at a young age. By showcasing her work through many studios, she has gone on to win countless choreography awards for jazz, contemporary, lyrical, and musical theater and has been invited to judge several national competitions due to her skilled choreography and training as a teacher. She prides herself on growing dancer's technical training and performance quality through strategic coaching and innovative choreography. Christina founded and owned Elite Dance Center from 2011-2021. She was the studio's creative director and lead choreographer since its inception. Davenport's training and choreography prowess through Elite Dance Center won her dancers numerous regional and national awards in solo, duo, trio, small group, and large group categories as well as convention scholarships. She recently sold EDC to focus on her work as a choreographer and to be a mom to her three young children. In addition to owning a dance studio and choreographing, Davenport has a bachelor's degree in elementary education and mild intervention from the University of St Francis. She is an advocate for the arts and actively sits on several charitable boards and committees in her community. She is excited to share her tremendous talent with the Studio 765 dancers!

Mia and Bryson created MB Choreo to fulfill their passion to choreograph, and also bring their knowledge, experience, own style and energy to dancers and studios interested! As dancers, they have competed together for 5 years and enjoyed success on a national level, including Bryson's professional career recently kicking off! As choreographers, they have learned from and assisted some of the best in the dance industry over the past few years, along with creating their own choreography this past year. Mia and Bryson are so excited to embark on this journey together!

Maddie‘s family is from a small suburb of Chicago, where she began dancing at W Dance Studio at the age of 3. She received training in tap, ballet, jazz, lyrical, and modern; however, her love for tap was evident when she put on her very first pair of tap shoes! Throughout high school, she trained at the Chicago Human Rhythm Project and Chicago Tap Theater. She attended Purdue University where she received her bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering. While at Purdue, she served as the President of the Purdue Tap Club, Footnotes, and led the tap program at another local studio in Lafayette, IN, teaching tap technique and choreographing award-winning competitive routines for all ages and levels. She recently started also teaching at Indy Dance Academy where she teaches the upper level tap technique classes and choreographs some of their tap routines for their company. Maddie is currently in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Indiana University School of Medicine and Purdue University where she is working towards her MD and her PhD. She is so honored and excited to be able to share her love of tap with the students at Studio 765!

My name is Saish Pothina and I am currently a college senior majoring in advertising! I have been dancing since the 7th grade, however, I found my passion for dance in high school and worked extremely hard to catch up to my peers in college. I have been trained in contemporary, jazz, lyrical, and hip hop and for the past 3 years I’ve been a director at Indiana University’s Inmotion Dance Company, a student led dance collective. I can’t wait meet all of you at 765!

Josh Zacher is an NYC based actor, dancer, teacher and choreographer. Performance credits include National Tours: The Prom (1st Nat’l, Dance Captain), A Chorus Line, The Elf on the Shelf. Josh has performed at The Kennedy Center, The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre (Associate Choreographer - Disney’s The Little Mermaid), Center Theatre Group (LA), North Shore Music Theatre (The Music Man), The Ordway (West Side Story), Kansas City Starlight, The REV Theatre Co. (Footloose), Theatre By The Sea (Newsies), and The Sharon Playhouse (Les Miserables). On camera, Josh can be seen on the NBC series Rise as well as MTV’s TRL, Live! With Regis and Kelly, and Dance Moms. Josh is guest faculty at Broadway Dance Center, New York City Center and Emerson College. Josh is also a college audition coach for MTCA. He holds a BFA in Drama from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. www.josh-zacher.com @dancingdudejz